Bonus Chapter
Casey: Leashes & Lace, Book 4
Preston
The Puppy Play Photo Shoot
As Tyler smiled over the utter chaos, I knew he’d been the perfect choice to run the shoot. I tried to imagine Roman wading through the pups dashing around on the floor chasing balls, and I had to swallow a laugh. He’d have been miserable, but Tyler looked perfectly at home, despite the fact that he was new to Leashes and Lace as a photographer.
Organizing the shoot hadn’t been as difficult as I’d expected, but I still wasn’t sure how it would all come together. With such a mix of personalities, I knew the pictures would either be perfect or end up looking awkward and pieced together.
Making sure we’d added extra time to the schedule to let them get comfortable together had been a good idea.
“They look so cute,” Eli said with a happy sigh, smiling as he surveyed the pups in the room.
“Yes, but we’ve got a few very nervous models still.” Some of the pups had already met at different functions, and their excitement was almost contagious. However, there were a few who were still close to their handlers’ side, quietly watching as the other pups raced around.
It was designed to be a more candid shoot, so we weren’t looking for stylish perfection. Pups were fun and full of life, and I wanted every picture infused with their excitement and energy. Getting them all into the right frame of mind before we started the more structured portion of the shoot would be key, however.
We watched as Tyler knelt down and rolled a ball to one of the pups still on the sidelines. The handler smiled encouragingly as the pup looked up and gave a low bark. When the handler leaned down and reached for the ball, the pup’s excitement started to build.
Whatever words the handler said were too low for us to hear, but the pup sat up and I could see his tail starting to wag. When the man tossed the ball back over to Tyler, the pup barked again, his head swinging back and forth between the two men.
Tyler’s smile widened as he held it for a long, teasing moment before rolling it back to the handler, clearly trying to tempt the pup. It was too much for the pup to resist. As the ball tumbled past him on the floor, he hopped on it, barking frantically like he’d caught the world’s best toy and it was all his.
The man laughed and leaned closer to run his hand down the pup’s back before bringing it up to caress over the masked muzzle. The pup’s whole body wiggled and squirmed in pleasure as his tail swung back and forth.
Each of the pups were dressed differently, depending on their comfort level, and this one had tiny black shorts under a harness that secured his simple black tail in place. Special gloves gave him the look of paws, and knee pads made it easy to dash around on the floor, but the mask really brought it all together.
The pup’s mask was neoprene, so it was soft and breathable, but the colors and features really brought out the uniqueness of each pup. It was always interesting to see which ones they’d picked to represent that side of themselves.
It’d taken some time to figure out how to handle the puppy gear side of Leashes and Lace. But once we’d realized they needed more autonomy than the more traditional models did when it came to what they wore, it all came together.
Depending on what line we were advertising, the pups got a variety of things to choose from. We’d only had a few times where for some reason one of the masks or tails weren’t chosen, and that usually gave us a good indication it wouldn’t sell in the long run anyway. If the pups who modeled the gear weren’t interested in it, then a curious person who was browsing through the site would probably never be drawn to it.
Keep on reading!
